1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stop and guide barrier for aircraft, of the type compirising a stop carrying a guide pattern and against which must be brought the windscreen of the cockpit of an aircraft coming into position at right angles to a gangway for disembarking passengers or at a precise point on an aeronautical platform.
2. Prior Art
The technique generally used for guiding aircraft on the ground in the vicinity of the debarkation zone for passengers in which a technician, generally called a "batman" or "signalman", stands in front of the aircraft and makes conventional signs to the pilot, does not today give satisfaction because it is not accurate enough. This lack of accuracy was acceptable when airports were not overloaded. At the present time, however, when traffic has greatly increased, the parking conditions must be such that there is no wasted space in the vicinity of the terminals and such that debarkation of the passengers takes place as quickly as possible.
To this end, efforts are now made to bring the aircraft alongside the terminals with an accuracy such that their door or doors come exactly opposite the opening of the pre-gangways with concertina walls dependant on fixed buildings. This stopping accuracy is obtained by optically guiding the aircraft whereby a barrier is provided comprising a stop carrying a guide pattern and against which the pilot must bring the windscreen of the cabin of his aircraft.
The problem with this type of guiding is the positioning of the stop. In fact, its position must be very variable so as to take into account the height of the aircraft, the distance between its windscreen and its door and the distance between the pre-gangway and the longitudinal axis of the plane-from one aircraft to another there may be differences reaching 18 meters in length and 10 meters in height.
At the present time, to solve this problem, either a technician manually adjusts the position of the barrier for each aircraft announced, depending on the type of aircraft and the risks of operating errors which that comprises, or a particular type of aircraft is assigned to a particular pre-gangway equipped with a permanently adjusted barrier, which avoids having to change the adjustment but sometimes ties up a pre-gangway needlessly.